More than a dozen aerospace companies have acquired Discus software, starting at $1,200, to reduce the time and effort in producing a quality inspection report, says provider Characteristic Solutions Co. of Columbus, Ohio. The tool allows users to assemble drawings, specifications and related documents and manage information in detail. Data can be exported to an AS9102 standard spreadsheet that provides a means to generate a first article inspection electronically.
Scandinavian Airlines International will launch a new fare structure June 1 that will mimic what Air Canada has done in offering various fare classes tied to flexibility. Its other three divisions--SAS Denmark, SAS Sweden and SAS Norway--have already implemented the new pricing. The airline is now concentrating on point-to-point service to mirror low-cost-carriers, and is eliminating its one-stops.
Six members of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) program have received the MDA's Technology Pioneer Award. The winners are: Max Peterson, retired MSX project manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) Bruce Guilmain; USAF Col. (ret.) John Mill; Harry Ames of the Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory; Joseph Chow, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratories; and Daniel Talbert, who is retired from the Sandia National Laboratory.
U.S. regional carriers have brokered a slew of new air service agreements with legacy and some low-cost airlines in the last year and a half, leaving questions about growth prospects for 2008. But airline executives remain bullish that opportunities in the 70-seat-aircraft category will arise.
An unexpected exodus of pilots from regional airlines during the last few months has spurred penalties in the first quarter and slowed growth at some of those carriers, but management at most of the companies remains optimistic about a fast recovery.
MARKET FOCUS Rockwell Collins looks for its first big Airbus contract 12 NEWS BREAKS Astronomers: Repairs to Hubble camera will allow us to check results on 'dark matter' 20 Nose of shuttle Atlantis's external tank shows areas repaired after hail damage 22 Flight tests underway to implement improvements to Eurofighter Typhoon 22 Ground controllers trying to recover two orbital missions with serious problems 23
The House of Representatives has passed a $503.8-billion defense authorization bill for Fiscal 2008 that includes $142 billion to cover Iraq and Afghanistan war costs. The measure kept intact cuts made by the Armed Services Committee to the Army's Future Combat Systems program and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). It also includes a last-minute provision to integrate the U.S. ballistic missile defense system further with Israel's.
The National Transportation Safety Board findings in the crash of New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's Cirrus SR20 (AW&ST May 7/14, p. 92) provide a thorough analysis of the flight into a Manhattan apartment building, but overlooks a plausible factor that may have contributed to the accident.
David Pritchard, Alan MacPherson, Canada-United States Trade Center (State University of New York at Buffalo)
In the Mar. 15 Aviation Daily article "Hazy: Competition for Boeing and Airbus May Emerge," you quoted International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy as saying China and Russia may emerge as competitors to Boeing and Airbus.
Cheryl L. Janey (see photo) has been named president of the Falls Church, Va.-based Civil Programs unit of the Harris Corp.'s Government Communications Systems Div. She was vice president-business development and strategy for the Commercial, State and Local Group of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Information Technology Sector.
Mauricio Botelho will remain as chairman of Brazil-based Embraer's board of directors after stepping down as president/CEO. He has been succeeded by Frederico Fleury Curado, who was executive vice president-airline market. Curado has been succeeded by Mauro Kern Junior. Antonio Julio Franco and Flavio Rimoli have been named executive vice president-organizational development and executive vice president/legal counsel, respectively.
A communications satellite developed and orbited for Nigeria by China is moving toward its geosynchronous station over Somalia following launch from the Xichang space center May 14 on a Long March 3B booster. The flight is China's fourth space mission this year and the 96th straight launch success since the Long March program was revamped in 1998. Two Compass navigation system spacecraft and an oceanographic satellite have also been launched by the Chinese in 2007.
Airbus is expected to decide in a few weeks whether to boost wide-body production rates, now that management has approved an increase in single-aisle production to 40 aircraft per month from 32. The new production rate should be reached by the end of 2009, with a rate of 38 aircraft a month by mid-2009.
An obituary for Mercury 7 astronaut Walter M. Schirra incorrectly identified the aircraft he flew in combat during the Korean War (AW&ST May 7/14, p. 27). It was the F-84E.
Avio is forecasting sustained growth for the current year, notwithstanding the weak dollar and slow pace of its military and civilian MRO activities. First-quarter results show an 8% revenue increase compared with the same period last year; new orders have brought the order book to €4.4 billion ($5.94 billion)--€400 million were added in the quarter. Avio also reported that it closed 2006 with a 9% revenues increase, €1.4 billion. The company continued to lose money, though, with a €16-million loss, largely due to the heavy debt as a result of the December 2006 buyout.
The Japanese military may be eyeing the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor as a candidate to update its fighter forces, but Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) says no one should expect any support from him. Abercrombie, chairman of the House Armed Services air-land forces subcommittee, calls himself "a real reactionary" when it comes to selling sensitive defense technology--like the stealthy fighter's cruise missile-detecting radar and wideband data links--to foreign governments (AW&ST Apr. 23, p. 20).
Operating margins at Rockwell Collins Inc. have risen steadily over the last five years from less than 15% to a pace of nearly 21%. Clay Jones, the company's folksy but driven CEO, doesn't hesitate when asked if those impressive figures can be pushed even higher. "Absolutely," he says, adding the caveat that he won't shortchange research-and-development spending or acquisition opportunities to maintain the streak.
The Spanish air force has accepted the first of five P-3Bs being upgraded with a new mission system. The modification is being performed by EADS CASA, and service entry is expected soon, the aircraft maker says. The P-3s are equipped with the FITS (fully integrated tactical system) mission equipment and feature communications and sensor upgrades, including a new electronic intelligence subsystem and synthetic-aperture/ inverse synthetic-aperture radar. The equipment was tested during several NATO exercises.
Timothy Adam has become vice president-Americas of Seattle-based Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training. He succeeds John Alexander, who is retiring. Adam was director of training programs and business administration for United Airlines.
Aircraft lessor AerCap is boosting its order for Airbus A330-200s to 30 aircraft, after having agreed in December to buy 20 of the twin-widebodies. The deal will boost AerCap's fleet to 107 aircraft. AerCap CEO Klaus Heinemann notes that the decision to take 10 more aircraft was made with customers for 13 of the first 20 A330s already secured. "The order for an additional 10 aircraft will help us to expand our portfolio further in the attractive market for modern, smaller wide-body aircraft, and to meet the demands of our global customer base," he says.
Secret reconnaissance and eavesdropping spacecraft were tapped to aid in the search for three Army soldiers taken prisoner May 12 by Al Qaeda-aligned terrorists in Iraq. The National Reconnaissance Office imaging constellation--four Advanced KH-11s with visible and infrared capabilities and four Lacrosse imaging radar spacecraft--makes a total of 16 passes daily over the Mahmoudiya target area about 20 mi. south of Baghdad. Eavesdropping spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit have been looking for Al Qaeda communications related to the capture of the soldiers.
Lockheed Martin expects to complete installation of Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometers (SFMR) on two WC-130J "Hurricane Hunters" for USAF's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Sqdn. by the end of June. SFMRs--pod-mounted beneath the aircraft's wing--are expected to improve the accuracy of wind speed and rainfall measurements at sea level, thereby improving the National Hurricane Center's understanding of storms. The SFMR readings will be taken at a pressure altitude of 700 millibars (about 10,000 ft.).
